When unthreading a bolt, a ratchet wrench works well as long as there is some resistance to rotation of the bolt or nut in the direction opposite to the direction of movement of the wrench shaft from that of the unthreading motion. In order to continue to unthread the bolt or nut using such a ratchet wrench under such circumstances, some resistance must be applied to the socket lest the nut or bolt simply reciprocally rotate in response to the forward and backward movement of the ratchet wrench.
In U.S. Pat. No. 735,134 to MacLean and U.S. Pat. No. 2,703,030 to Marvin, there are disclosed devices designed to overcome the problems of rotating loosened bolts wherein there is provided a rotating shaft positioned within a wrench handle and driven by a crank shaft engageable with a gear member mounted about or positioned on a drive stud of the drive stud assembly. In order to effect rotation of such a drive stud, it is necessary to use two hands, i.e. one hand to firmly grasp and anchor the wrench handle in fixed position and the other hand to cause the shaft to engage the gear member associated with the drive stud and to subsequently rotationally drive the crank shaft thereby to rotate the loose bolt. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,025 to Nairn, there is primarily disclosed a ratchet wrench assembly including a two positionable drive assembly for rotating the drive stud for starting or removing loose bolts in one position and for rotating the ratchet wrench through a ratcheting device in the other position. Such an assembly similarly requires a two-handed operation in the position for starting or removing loosened bolts.